Headlines for today : In the wake of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's hate campaign against north Indians and non-Marathis, the Supreme Court on Thursday struck a patriotic note by saying that "all of us are Indians" and there is no difference between people coming from various regions.
Im glad of this patriotism, better late than never. We need it. After all we are Indians. Lets do away with tags like castes, creeds, regions, hindus, muslims, christians, minorities(whatever that means), majorities(and woteva that means 2), females, males, tribals. Lets have common rules for everyone. Like maharashtrians should work hard and compete. Like I heard some people shout, Its the survival of the fittest. Or is it?
Wish I was standing in the engineering line in this era. No reservations for navy, army, dalits, OBCs, minorites(again). No college level reservations for Gujuratis(in Maharashtra, trust me, our college had reservations)!! No city centric struggles. Allow full access to everyone to all MBA colleges in Maharashtra through CET instead of just 5% of outsiders. We are Indian. Period.
Lets all talk in Hindi in Chennai(we are all Indians, remember), and lets donate land for the good of the state you have been staying in for more than 10 years, instead of a homeland(AB babyyyyyy). Whats a homeland in a country full of Indians??
And while we're at it, lets allow people to roam about with guns in their hands and wave them at the police(who needs em anyway), but ofcourse dont hurt 'em, lets give 'em the benefit of the doubt.
Note: The author hates violence, be it from MNS or whoever, but she also hates hypocrisy. She has no political bias, except that she's one of those few unfortunate majorities, for whom no one will ever fight, she's too far from ever being a reserved category(unless I add an e to my surname), too far from owning and donating land, and has to listen to too many people griping about how badly crowded and unsafe bombay has become and how narrow minded maharashtrians are 'coz they are anti migration into bombay in the same breath.
9 comments:
it is obvious that your fear and hatred have clouded your judgement. Violence against fellow Indians is very different from being anti reservation. Lets not confuse the two. The only true bombayites are the Kohli fisherfolk. For before the British came, this was jst seven islands full of sleepy fishing villages. If one was to use your narrow argument then shouldnt u also leave? Everyone has a right to live and work in Bombay. If u dont agree, why did you do ur MBA from outside Maharashtra? Shouldnt u have done it from a local college? And are you willing to give up the option of working anywhere else in the country? Please think before writing this kind of thinly veiled hate spewing words.
Dear Anon,
Lets go over your comment carefully.
Fear…I’m not afraid of much, never have been. But considering that you are hiding behind an “Anon”….I shouldn’t be discussing fear with you.
Lets come to hatred- You obviously are someone I know. So you should know, I’m not really capable of hating people, I hate attitudes, dirt, pollution, terrorism, fanaticism, etc, but, never managed to hate people. So please specify what my hatred is about.
Violence against “fellow” Indians- like I said I can’t see a violent movie, I’m not into violence, nor a proponent of it.
Very different from anti reservation? Why? How? My topic is people become very patriotic, when they are cornered. All I am trying to say is that Indians are hypocrites. They use patriotism when it suits them. That’s why the topic “Correlation”. And yes, if I stay in Bangalore for 20 years, I will do something for Bangalore, not for Bombay.
People can work and study anywhere they want. On the basis of MERIT, like SC said. That is why I correlated reservation with it, coz they didn’t open their gobs when the reservation issue came up.
I did think a lot before writing the post. But you seem to have choked on it as soon as you read the first line :D
lol... so this is what the whole tamasha was about.
interesting... please continue... both of you.
Mr Preacher, i was just checking with you.....like i said....a shot in the dark....
tch tch rujuta.. you shouldnt be writing this kind of thinly veiled hate spewing words.
im all in favour of reservation for minorities.
as a guy id like a seat in an all girls college..
as a city dweller i want some land in a tribal region
as an idiot i would like to join the mensa....
lol!! hmmm, we see the wit's still as sharp :D
Good Post Rujuta.. i read it only today. Yes, people will never understand the core issue as they have been seeing only the violence (which even i dont support) and not the root cause. I think the argument of fisherfolk as only true mumbaikar is ridiculous. i have also stayed in Hyd but i never behaved to locals there inspite of being treated with hatred by my fellow Indians in mumbai where i stayed for 3 years.
Indianness is truly about making money for years in one state and spending it in 'your own' state, it is about coming to mumbai wielding a gun injuring people by indiscriminate firing. When police guns you down the netas make you martyr.
that apart, indianness is about abusing natives at workplace and everywhere else. it is about telling natives that "your" state and city stinks etc. I have heard many lewd comments in my 3 years in mumbai on maharashtrian culture by my fellow Indians. that is not called hatred, regionalism or narrow-mindedness that is just plane pure patriotism on their part.
Although I could not agree more that the present form of the quota system is unjust, I feel that justifying the cause that Raj Thackrey (RT) is crusading for with the argument that law itself has supported discrimination by instituting reservations seems to be somewhat far-fetched.
The Supreme Court motto “all of us are Indians and there is no difference between people coming from various regions”, is about not discriminating while hiring on the basis of caste, say, thus providing equal opportunities to people. While the caste based reservations are about identifying social inequality and thus constitute an alleged measure to remedy it, which again is an attempt to provide equal opportunities to people. We tend to launch a tirade against the quota system because we tend to evaluate it only on the basis of affluent urban students who exploit the quota system, & thus make it to the desired business schools. This exploitation by students of the quota system is a loophole that needs to be sealed. However, for every affluent guy that we come across, who made it on the basis of his caste, there probably is some rural candidate who is less privileged, who didn’t have a conducive atmosphere to study and had to work alongside, and to whom quotas provided that final critical push to break free from deprivation. Of course, this happens at the cost of meritocracy, which seems to be certainly unjust. However, we need to give them limited opportunity tot narrow the gap that exists between higher classes and them to ensure a semblance of socio-economic equality.
Personally, I feel that quotas based on financial status would make more sense, as I feel that financial stability is more important than social equality as the latter will cease to matter once the former is achieved. In essence, regarding caste based reservations, I feel that the intention is apparently noble although there can be far fairer means to achieve the end.
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However, as far as RT is concerned, his intention seems to be somewhat misdirected. Why can’t Maharashtrians compete with others on an even basis? Does their residing in Maharashtra put them at any disadvantage as compared to others when it comes to competing for jobs, so that they need a RT to speak for them? Why is he trying to make Maharashtra ‘insular’? We curse the South Indians for not speaking in our national language ….so, aren’t we heading the same way? The very difference between Mumbai and Chennai which we should be proud of is waning.
Even if we believe RT’s conspiracy theory of the Centre conspiring against Maharashtrians, and denying them rights, I feel that it is indeed pitiful that Maharashtrians should feel threatened by people who occupy the lower rungs of the society. The complacent attitude of an average vernacular educated Maharashtrian manoos (whom, we can safely assume, that RT represents) occupying the lower stratum of the society, is responsible for his status. Humans have always traveled to greener pastures and when a community becomes an integral part of a society and is contributing positively to it, the society should take it in its folds (Bhaiyyas, in this case).
I have heard a lot of his speeches on the internet. The man speaks unfettered, which is admirable. However, his speeches are never about how the less privileged Maharashtrians, should strive to get better educated so that they wouldn’t be bothered about losing their menial jobs to outsiders. They are always about how vulnerable Maharashtrians are and how RT can be their “saviour”. Prosperity is a very potent weapon to defend integrity and that would be an inevitable outcome of a good ENGLISH education. I have never heard him speak about the importance of an English education. When this generation of the less privileged Maharashtrian class is empowered with a proper education and a respectable position it won’t need a RT. Probably, RT realizes that. That’s why his speeches are more often than not focused on creating a sense of urgency and laced with contempt for North Indians. I feel that RT is just ensuring the society the next generation of Maharashtrian office boys and clerks.
Regarding AB’s opening a school in UP, I believe, that his opening a school in UP in no way suggests that he is ungrateful to the people of Maharashtra. (BTW, I would be loath to agree with some one that Maharashtra has played a role in his stardom. His talent ensured his stardom. We watched his movies because they were entertaining). And also, it doesn’t in any way indicate his decision to not do anything for Mumbai in the future. I somehow feel that RT announced his arrival with a pound of celebrity flesh.
All in all, I feel that quotas based on financial status would be far more effective in achieving socio-economic equality than the current system of caste-based quotas. However, the presence of the current caste-based reservations does not really justify RT’s actions.
(I am a Brahmin and I lost 2 years because of quotas, so u can be sure that this isn’t a biased write up ;-))
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